The present invention is broadly directed to vehicle mounted beds, and more particularly to a device for suspending a mattress or support padding used in the sleeping compartments or the cabs of large heavy vehicles, such as diesel powered trucks.
Generally, automobiles include highly sophisticated suspension systems which do an excellent job of isolating the passenger compartment from road induced shocks. However, the cab in a diesel powered truck, normally is rigidly coupled to the truck frame and directly transmits to the passengers in the cab all fore-and-aft and vertical and horizontal vibrations that are produced by irregularities and undulations in the road surface. With the ever increasing cost of large trucks and trailer rigs, it has become important to maximize the utilization of these types of vehicles. As a result, it has become a common practice to assign two drivers to a single truck so that it can be driven continuously for long periods of time to reach remote cross-country destinations in a shortest amount of time without having to make several stops along the way to obtain the desired rest. Therefore, the drivers alternate between sleeping and/or resting and driving. It is therefore desirable that the non-driving member of the driving team obtain restful sleep while the other driver member does the driving and vice versa.
Consequently, it has also become a common practice to provide a sleepinq compartment in the trucks in which a mattress or the like can be placed upon which the resting driver may recline and rest. For example, for over-the-road cargo trucks, the sleeping compartment is normally the lofty shelf-like stratum portion at the rearward area of the driving member's cab. In some vehicles of this type, the sleeping compartment including a sleeper bunk is located between the ceiling of the driver's compartment and the roof of the cab.
A recurring problem, however, has been that the sleeping conditions are not ideal. The major reason for this problem is that the vibrations of the vehicle, including vertical bouncing and pitch movements, make it almost extremely difficult for the resting driver to sleep in the sleeping compartment while the vehicle is moving. Even in the reclined position, sleeping is sometimes difficult because of the vehicle's motion. In conventional berths, over rough roads a person in the berth is bounced up-and-down, and as the truck negotiates sharp curves, the person is pushed by the centrifugal force towards the cab sides, and during stops, starts, and abrupt gear shifts, the person is rolled back and forth.
The aforementioned problem is well-known and several systems have been devised by many in this art. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,067,437; 3,612,599; 3,698,022; 3,524,673; 3,760,436; 3,882,558; 4,107,797; 4,144,601; 4,196,483; 4,497,078; and 4,713,851. The conventional systems, however, are unduly complicated, expensive to manufacture, and not altogether ideal from the standpoint of actually eliminating or substantially dampening the transmission of vibrations from the vehicle to the bed itself.
Keeping the above considerations in mind, the inventor of the present invention has successfully devised a device for suspending a mattress or the like in, for example, a truck's cab or sleeping berth, in such a manner that person lying thereupon will experience an extremely smooth restful ride, notwithstanding annoying motions or joltings of the truck, particularly on rough roads.